Activities of the Biotechnology Institute AS CR, v. v. i. (IBT) are focused on cutting-edge basic and oriented research and development aimed at the practical utilization of diagnostic and therapeutic applications in human medicine.

The Institute consists of seven research groups, whose activities cover two main areas:
  (A) Protein engineering and structural biology and
  (B) Pathology of the cell, causes, diagnosis, treatment.

A. Protein engineering and structural biology:
 1. Recombinant ligand engineering (Head: Peter Šebo), focusing on design and rational improvement of high-affinity-binding recombinant ligand proteins for use in applications in which antibodies have failed.

2. Structural biology (Head: Cyril Bařinka), activity is directed to the field of structural biology and the relationship between structure and function of relevant proteins.

B. Pathology of the cell, causes, diagnosis, treatment:
 3. Diagnostics for reproductive medicine (Head: Jana Pěknicová), characterizing processes and molecular players involved in the egg fertilization process and developing tools (monoclonal antibodies) for detection of male infertility, as well as for detection of selected environmental pollutants with a negative effect on mammalian reproduction.

 4. Diagnostics of autoimmune diseases (Head: Šárka Růžičková), focusing on humoral and genetic aspects of autoimmune diseases and identification of target molecules for therapeutic intervention and new diagnostic tools for autoimmune diseases.

 5. Molecular therapy (Head: Jiří Neužil), focusing on design and development of novel anti-cancer agents, in particular vitamin E analogues, efficient and selective for malignant cells, with a particular emphasis on the molecular mechanism of apoptosis caused by such agents through mitochondrial destabilization.

 6. Gene expression (Head: Mikael Kubista), developing tools for spatiotemporal analysis of gene expression by high-throughput quantitative real-time PCR approaches at the tissue, single-cell and sub-cellular levels, including multi-dimensional data analysis.

 7. Laboratory of molecular pathogenetics (Head: Gabriela Pavlínková), focused on understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying abnormal embryonic development. The animal models and gene expression profiling serve to identify the molecular targets for the development of preventive and diagnostic strategies for diabetic embryopathy.

The scientific research groups are provided with grant support from various home and international grant agencies. Currently, the Institute groups are involved in the projects from the 7th EC Framework Programme, the Institute is engaged in the programme Nanotechnologies for Society and  was awarded  one project from the "Research Centers" 1M Programme of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic  and participates in the NPVII programme.
Doctoral students and diploma students are being trained at the Institute, five scientists work as university teachers, and provide  semestral courses at the Universities.

The Biotechnology Institute is closely collaborating with the TATA Biocenter Prague, jointly organizing courses of analysis of gene expression using qRT-PCR.

The Institute serves as a knowledge base for emerging and evolving biotech industry in the Czech Republic, and for this reason participates  in the Biotechnology cluster (CzechBio), gathering subjects involved in biotechnologies.
In Vestec near Prague, project BIOCEV as part of the programme Research and Development for Innovations is being prepared by IBT in collaboration with other Academy institutes and Charles University.


Assoc. Prof. Jana Pěknicová, PhD,
director